1. Field
The following is directed in general to displaying content on mobile communication devices, and more particularly to a method and apparatus for processing XML documents for display on a mobile communication device.
2. Description of the Related Art
Mobile communication devices have become extremely popular for business and personal use due to numerous services and features that the devices and mobile infrastructures are able to support. Handheld mobile communication devices are essentially portable computers having wireless capability, and come in various forms. These include Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), cellular phones and smart phones. One important capability of such mobile communication devices is the ability to view documents, such as word processing documents, spreadsheets and presentations. While the compact size of such mobile communication devices is an advantage to portability, limitations in download bandwidth give rise to challenges in viewing large documents.
Various file format specifications exist for the storage of electronic documents. A recently developed specification, Office Open XML (commonly abbreviated as OOXML), was developed by Microsoft Corporation for its Microsoft Office 2007 product suite. The Office Open XML specification was standardized as Ecma 376 in December 2006. Office Open XML uses a ZIP container for packaging XML and other data files. The Office Open XML file is an Open Packaging Convention (OPC) package containing the individual files that form the basis of the document. In addition to XML files with Office markup data, the ZIP package can also include embedded (binary) files in formats such as PNG, BMP, AVI and PDF.
Windows Mobile™ uses a client application residing on each mobile communication device to read and parse Office Open XML documents. Therefore, in order to provide for presentation of such documents, the client application must be installed/updated on each mobile communication device. When a document forms an attachment to an email, Windows Mobile™ devices must download the entire attachment in order for the client application to read and parse the document. This can be a very time-consuming procedure, especially when the document is large, and may be inconvenient for a user who wishes to view only a portion of the document.
Aspects and advantages which will be subsequently apparent, reside in the details of construction and operation as more fully hereinafter described and claimed, reference being had to the accompanying drawings forming a part hereof, wherein like numerals refer to like parts throughout.